“How--how did you get here?” Gale said nervously. “We thought----”
“We were miles away, eh?” the outlaw said with a loud laugh. “We couldn’t leave without payin’ a final visit to you. It was easy to get your friends off the ranch.”
“But what if we had gone with them?” Gale demanded, wishing desperately that they had gone with the others.
“We’d have tried another way,” he said calmly. “You ride alone sometimes.”
“But it is nicer so,” Pedro put in. “No one will hear you--scream!”
Valerie, who had been listening in frightened and worried silence, now permitted herself a gleam of triumph. They supposed no one would hear, did they? Loo Wong was in the bunkhouse. In fact, he might at any moment come here to the big ranch house. And surely he would hear? Val smiled to herself. Both girls had pretty good lungs and once they let out a yell, Loo Wong would have to have bad ears indeed not to hear them!
“Loo Wong,” Val said in the barest of whispers to Gale.
Gale nudged her friend in understanding. It was well that they did have a faint hope of help, but it would not do to let these men know of Loo Wong. They had come here bloodthirsty and revengeful. What would happen before they left? Of that she scarcely dared to think. The outlaw was fingering his rope again, in a most unpleasant manner. What was he contemplating? She shivered at the malicious look on his face. They might try anything, they were utterly ruthless. She wished frantically that there was some way in which they might summon Loo Wong.
“No, as I said, we couldn’t leave without paying a visit to you,” the outlaw continued. “Did you ever see anybody horsewhipped?” he asked next.
Gale paled at the suggestion. “You can’t mean to--you must be mad!” she said.